


Fall is for the ghosts (and the snakes)

by deadvinesandfanfics



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Original Work
Genre: Angst, Blindness, F/F, Fluff, THE BOIS ARE HERE, and mythologys cool right, but what if it was gayer, cracked mythology, i just kind of had a moment, idk man, no betas we die like men here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28999548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadvinesandfanfics/pseuds/deadvinesandfanfics
Summary: The woman laughed, a long and guttural sound that sounded like an animal howling. “Ha-you don’t-” she took a second to catch her breath. “You really have no idea where you are, do you?” A pause. “This island is deserted.”“But you’re here.”“Well, aren’t you an observant one?”“I’m blind.”Silence.In which a blind girl is stranded on Medusa's isle.
Relationships: Medusa (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore) & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	1. In which mistakes were made and kids are stupid

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! so. I've always loved the story of medusa and I've always wondered if instead of just skipping straight from banishment to death someone actually. met her. And maybe they were blind. And unaffected by her curse.
> 
> Long story short i just wanted to write medusa with a happy ending and a cute gay girlfriend
> 
> (I have no idea how long this will go for but lets find out lol)

“But won’t that be kind of a bad idea?” Danae asked, voice pitching in as she wriggled between the other kids to get a better spot into the conversation. “It’ll be all muddy and stuff.”  
“That’s why it's a great idea!” one of the bigger kids replied, grinning and showing off his chipped tooth.  
“Why?” one of the voices questioned.  
“Because we can use the mud to hide, of course. It’ll be the ultimate hide and seek!” He grinned cockily and pushed through the small circle of children. “Let’s go before they pull us back inside again.” Ah, yes. Parents, always so evil, telling trying to get kids not to crawl around amongst the mud.

As the small band hiked up towards the small patch of dark green trees the lightest rain began again.  
“We should turn back…” Another wobbly-voiced kid spoke. “I don’t want to get into trouble again.”  
“Come on,” Danae herself said, determined to impress the older kids despite feeling uneasy as well. “Don’t be a baby.”

“You’re it! Start counting!” One of the children was forced to be the seeker, and, after some bickering, they begrudgingly began counting. Danae took the chance to begin running to find the perfect spot. The mud was slippery under her feet and she grinned as she crawled underneath a small, bright green bush, careful of the small drop behind her. Peaking out, she could spot the seeker among the earthy tones of the trees.  
“Hey,” someone whispered next to her and she jumped slightly.  
“Zeretos! Find your own spot!”  
“Too late, he’s already finished counting. Be quiet.”  
The seeker stood up and wandered in and out of view.

It had been around ten minutes and there had been no sight of him.  
“Do you think they left us here?” Zeretos whispered after glancing around the still shrubbery.  
Danae's brow crinkled at the very thought. “No, of course not," there had to be a reason for the silence, "We’re just great at hiding.”  
“I think they left us.”  
“They did not!”  
“Prove it.”

Danae shuffled to get closer to the edge of the hidey-hole. She couldn't see anyone else from where she was sitting, but she didn't want to stick her neck out in plain sight.

“But I’ll _lose!”_ the girl stressed, fists gripping the slippery ground unconsciously. She didn't want to lose. It wasn't an option.  
“We’re already the only ones here!”  
Determined to prove him wrong, she waited a minute before slowly crawling out of the bush and standing up. Silence.  
“See-”  
“BOO!” one of the kids had shrieked, leaping out from behind a nearby tree, giving her shoulders a sharp shove.

It felt like time slowed down. Like a layer of thick honey had coated everyone, the world felt muffled and delayed. She vaguely registered the sound of her own shriek as she stumbled, her footing giving way to the slippery rocks as she tumbled down into a small crevasse. It was dark and cold, and the walls were wet and covered in grime but she lost focus as her head snapped back against _something-_ a tree trunk or rock-it didn't matter.

Black spots danced in the corners of her vision before an unwelcomed sleep took her.  
She didn’t remember anything after that.


	2. Sink or swim? why not a bit of both

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Denial? Never heard of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyy guess who lost their finished draft of this chapter twice??? :')

Waking up was a slow process. It started with the twitch of her fingers, the slow clenching and loosening of muscles. Her consciousness slowly trickled in. She slowly cracked her eyes open and tried to figure out what had happened. It was pitch black. Nighttime. She released an involuntary breath and tried to ignore the pounding of her head.

She had fallen, that much she remembered.

Clenching at the sheets underneath her, she assumed she was on a bed. Home, maybe?

Pushing herself up, she peered around the room more. Inky blackness was all that welcomed her. _Huh, it's really dark. _Before she could question anything, however, the feeling of cotton filled her head as she struggled to stay upright.

For a world of black, it seemed to sway pretty well.

"Danae!" a voice cried out, and _oh, that was mom, mom was here, everything's going to be fine._

A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and she startled, whipping around to where she assumed her mother was.

"How are you feeling, sweety?" Danae opened her mouth, but before she could talk the words died in her throat. _How can she see when it's so dark?_ So instead of talking, she just settled on a small frown.

"Lie her down," another voice murmured from the other side of the room. It was scratchy, and it reminded her of sea spray and rusty nails. She strained her ears as she heard the footsteps approaching.

Suddenly, she was gently being pushed back until her back hit the pillow. _Who was in her room?_

"Little girl, look at me." She tried. She really did. No matter how much she strained her eyes, she could only guess the general direction he was in. As the silence stretched on, panic slowly took hold of her. During night time, she could look out and see the moon reflect off the plains and trees and ocean. If it was night time, why couldn't she see any of it? How come her mom and the weird old man could see? _Why couldn't she see?_

Her breathing picked up, coming out in short, panicked gasps. A calloused hand pressed against her head, and she flinched back. 

Fingers pulled her eyelid up, and she tried to wriggle away.

Too much too fast _too much too fast too much-_

Suddenly the hands released her, and she scurried backwards without a second thought.

"She's lost her sight."

Her mother let out a choked gasp and her father let out a disappointed sigh, like something had just mildly inconvenienced him. When did he get here? _She couldn't see him._

"Let her rest for now. Her sight may return later."

With that, the footsteps retreated and the door closed, leaving her alone in the dark.

Her sight did not return later, much to Danae's chagrin.

She had been housebound, with no one but her mother to keep her company. All she could do was walk around with a stupid _walking stick_ and follow her mother to have company.

It wasn't long before her mother suggested cleaning.

"All good women should know how to clean!" she had said. _Ugh._ "And it could help you get to know your surroundings a little bit better!" _Huh. That could work._

So that's what she spent her days doing. Following her routine of eating, cleaning and sleeping again.

A few years passed in that slow, monotonous rhythm. She contributed nothing to the household, and being unable to be married off to someone, it was no wonder why her father found a way to get rid of her.

It wasn't fair. None of this was fair. She had only been at the temple for a _month_. Shipped off to a small temple somewhere in Lamia, so far from home.

She had cooked and cleaned and done everything that had been asked of her. And now she was being sent off as a symbol of 'good luck' and 'protection' or something stupid like that.

"It is Athena's will," the head priestess had said.

It really, _really_ wasn't. 

"Of course," Danae had said softly, bobbing her head to the priestess.

Athena probably couldn't care less.

They were panicked.

She could tell by the frantic sounds of boots scuffling on old wood, the shouts of frightened men, the hushed whispers of prayer to gods or goodbyes to family and friends that were almost swallowed by the chaos. If they were panicked, she was panicked.

They were experienced sailors. They had been through a storm before.

Of course, Danae assumed, they could be scary too.

But not this scary.

“Steer away!” One of the men yelled into the storm. “The rocks-!”

Crunch.

More panic on deck.

“Athena-” Danae cut herself off, the beginning of a prayer dying in her throat.

Suddenly the whole ship clashed violently against the rocks, the sea’s spittle flying overboard and spraying the crewmates, mixing in with the slanted, heavy rain. It was beginning to feel like Poseidon himself really was spitting on them, considering how dangerous this whole trip had been.

The wood made a horrible crunching sound that made Danae’s stomach clench uncomfortably as she moved to find a post or something steady to hold onto. As she reached for what she thought for a wall one of the men on board shoved past her and she tripped. Then the ship _turned_.

She, along with a few unlucky others, slid down the side of the deck and were knocked off the side. As she hit the water, the wind was knocked out of her lungs. She tried to breathe and she swallowed the sea. Unseeing eyes watering, she choked and hacked at the salt that stung her throat as she tried to grasp onto something or someone or _anything_. Desperately she tried to keep her head above the freezing water as she strained her ears to listen for the sailers. It was hard to hear when her teeth were chattering so loudly and her heart felt like it was in her throat. Every muscle in her body was clenched uncomfortably.

The waves rhythmically swept her up into the air only to drop her again, the only seemingly steady thing in the chaos of the night. The cries and shouts of men, both overboard and onboard were seeming to get more distant.

Either that or they were just quieter.

Anything was beginning to feel quiet against the loud crunching of wood and the violence of the waves.

 _They’re drowning_ , her mind supplied unhelpfully, in the same voice that told her muscles to loosen and that it would be fine if she just stopped struggling. The thought came to her and weighed her down, _down, down,_ even more, and she pushed past it as she continued to grab at the chunks of wood or floating containers of cargo for temporary buoyancy.

They’re sailers. Experienced ones. They’ll be fine.

_What about you?_

_Huh_ , she thought. _What about me?_

As her attempts to stay afloat became less and less successful she began to slip out of consciousness. The frozen water had begun to eat the tips of her fingers and her toes and her mind had begun to slow down.

Everything was beginning to slow down.

The panic and disappointing acceptance of her death had passed in an unfairly short amount of time, but honestly? Right now she was so tired. As her mind faded out of existence, she could have sworn that she felt arms hoisting her up, up, up, and out of the water and into the freezing night.

Somewhere in the back of her head, the traitorous part of her mind whispered _Athena._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading, very pog


	3. Snakes are just tails with faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> two chapters in one day?? guess im just really procrastinating school that hard, huh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe angst go brrrrrrrrrrrrr

She could hear everything, but dared not to open her eyes.

It was funny how fear and pain could intermingle and make a person do stupid things.

To clarify, she had never been much of a morning person, but this was getting ridiculous. The water lapping at her still-numb toes and the gritty taste of sand on her tongue made her want her roll over, but every muscle in her body screamed in protest.

The waves were softly rolling onto the shore and water crept up to her knees, the few birds in the distance sang quietly, and the leaves on the trees rustled every few seconds. It was pretty ideal. Peaceful.

But it still felt way too loud.

Every touch from the sea sent her mind spiraling back to the feeling of drowning in the middle of the ocean, and she was frozen with both fear and shock.

Seconds pass. Minutes. Ten minutes. Half an hour. An hour.

Her back was beginning to burn.

She pushed herself up and stood still for a few seconds, trying to focus on staying standing despite the throbbing headache. She began to walk. Her arms were reaching out, and she took long steps to avoid running into anything, when she suddenly stepped on a solid lump.

Crouching down again, she felt around and tried to figure out what it was.

_That feels like an arm! That’s a friend!_

She ran her fingers up from the wrist to the elbow, then her brow scrunched in confusion when she just found air. Her fingers wrapped around what felt like a wet stump, and she came to the horrific realization that, _Oh, that’s just an arm,_ and shrieked. She leapt back, stumbling onto the grit and sands.

_I have to get out of here._

Her shoes were gone.

I mean, it wasn’t much of a surprise. It was a shipwreck, she was lucky to even have her feet.

Her mind flickered back to the arm, dismembered and sticky with dried blood. She shuddered and continued to walk.

Before she had set sail for Athens, the seasons were beginning to turn. Even without knowing that, she probably could have guessed it was Autumn just from the crackle of leaves underfoot.

The birds above had gone quiet, and the only sound was the rhythmic _crunch_ , _crunch_ , _crunch_. It was an odd island. It reminded her of the old ghost stories-which was kind of funny, really-because everyone knew that Fall was for the ghosts. And the snakes.

There were lots of snakes. She presumed she was in a forest; there were trees, thicker than she had ever been seen _(ha)_ before. She could stretch her arms around the trunk and her fingers still wouldn’t meet. She figured this out when she accidentally ran into one.

Suddenly, a low hiss filled the air.

Danae stopped dead. Oh no, oh no _oh nononono-_

“Huh, you’re still alive, that’s good to-”

“There’s a snake!” Danae whisper-yelled, jerking at the voice of another human, but mostly focused on the snake. She could hear it slither around against the crunchy leaves as her arms crossed and her body slowly curled in on itself.

“Be quiet!” Silence for a few seconds. Then the hisses started up again. _Oh, Gods, there was more than one-_

“Ignore them,” the stranger began again. Danae stayed quiet and refused to move. “They’re harmless and they don’t bite. You’re fine.” She relaxed a bit.

“Who are you?” the voice asked. They sounded like they were a few meters away.

“What?” Danae asked stupidly, still kind of panicked about the snakes.

“What are you doing here?” they continued, “You know this island is supposed to be cursed, right?” That was too many questions too fast. _And excuse me, what, this island is what now-?_

“Um, we got shipwrecked,” Danae began, swallowing the lump in her throat at the memory. “I’m sorry, wh-”

“I can see that,” the stranger said in a deadpan voice, completely oblivious to Danae’s internal panic. “There’s pieces of ship all over my lovely beach.” The snakes became louder again and Danae could hear her heartbeat in her ears.

“Uh-I’m sorry-who are you?” she finally blurted out.

“The person who saved your life.”

_What_.

“But-but that was-” Danae cut herself off. _Of course it wasn’t Athena._ “Oh, I-um. Sorry. What’s your name?”

A pause.

“Théama.”

“Um, I’m sorry, but is there a way I can return to Lamia? Are there any other people here?” 

Théama laughed, a long and guttural sound that sounded like an animal howling. “Ha-you don’t-” she took a second to catch her breath. “You really have no idea where you are, do you?” A pause. “This island is deserted.”

“But you’re here.”

“Well, aren’t you an observant one?”

“I’m blind.”

Silence.

_Danae, you absolute dumbass,_ her mind hissed at her.

Danae waited for a second before asking, “You… said this island was cursed? Are there no other people here?” _What curse?_ She didn’t even want to ask. It’s a joke. It _had_ to be a joke. 

“Nope.” A few more seconds passed.

“Surely there must be some way to leave. There has to be a way out, right?”

“Ha! Tell me if you ever find it,” Théama snorted and disappeared into the thick brush of the forest, leaves crunching underneath her. The low hiss of the snakes had disappeared with her. 

Soon she was gone, and Danae was left alone on an island that even the Gods seemingly didn’t even want to step foot on.

All that was left to do was to find a way out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading!!! :)


	4. To be a wanderer, wandering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a going on a stroll

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!  
> I barely scraped this chapter together because school's started up again so I'm sorry if this one's a little iffy

Food. That was a thing that she would probably need.

So she began to search the island.  
She walked in the direction the other person had strolled off into. _Théama_ , her mind corrected. _Her name was Théama._  
As she was walking, the mossy rocks and forest floor tapered out into a rougher, but flatter, gravel road. Or what she could only assume was gravel.

After an hour or so of walking, the road began to fork off, with a handy sign between them. It wasn't handy, however, when she blindly stumbled into said sign.  
After a moment of recovery, she lifted a hand and gently ran her fingers over the worn words that were scratched into the old wood.  
_Temple,_ the right side read. _What temple? Maybe there would be food. Or shelter._  
_Beach_ , the other side said. Like _hell_ she was going back there.

So she made her way along the path to what she hoped was the direction of the temple.

The walk was painful, small flecks of stone and grit were caught in her sandals and every so often a stone would knock her off balance. And then finally, finally, she could hear another voice.

"How-How did you get here? You stupid girl, you- _did you follow me?_ " It was biting and angry and sounded exasperated in so many different ways, but the disbelief was evident. But to be honest, Danae didn't care too much about how the voice sounded, mostly just about, _thank god I found her. Maybe she's near the temple. Maybe she has food._

_Maybe she'll be merciful._

"You said you were blind!" The voice shrills, and there's another sound, that sounds like waves riding up on the beach, and Danae realises with horror that, _Oh, that's more snakes._ "How did you get here if you're blind?"

"I followed the sign," Danae said, still wandering forward.

_"The sign? What-_ oh," the hissing dropped to a whisper, and Danaes confusion and fear spiked. _Just how many snakes were on this stupid island?_

"I should take that stupid thing down," Théama muttered from a few feet away before turning and continuing to walk in the opposite direction. Leaving her. _Again_.

"Wait!" Danae cried out and taking a few stumbling steps forward. "Where are you going?"

"Back inside," came the drawled reply. "Since _someone_ is disturbing me."

She said nothing else as she continued to walk away, and Danae followed her.

"If you follow me," Théama's voice came again, rough and low, "you better not get in my way."  
  
Now that was something that Danae could do.

"We're here," Théama muttered before walking into the temple, and as soon as her sandals hit the smooth floor, Danae felt out of place. Although everything was in ruin-she could tell by the cracks splintering underneath her shoes, and the crumbled stone walls-someone had clearly tried to preserve this sacred place. Danae was too immersed in exploring and trying to figure out what sort of temple she was in instead of focusing on the woman a few feet away from her.

As she wandered, arms spread, she felt along the ancient walls of the building. She could feel fragments of old mosaics and half-destroyed statues of soldiers and swords. _Maybe a temple of Ares then._ A temple of Ares, built with blood and fire and sacrifices and death.

"I'd watch where I was walking, if I were you," Théama said, a few meters away, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Hmm?" the girl tilted her head curiously, slowly moving forward still. "Is there a drop, or a gap or something?"  
"...No," she replied eventually.   
Danae continued to move forward obliviously, hands outstretched before she felt the smooth stone in front of her.

_"Oh!"_ she gasped, "You have coat racks!" she shuffled out of her damp cloak and leaned it over an outstretched portion of stone to dry. Trailing her fingers along the actual stone, Danae realized that, _oh wait, they're not coat hangers, they're statues._

"So cool," she breathed, hands trailing to the side of the statue's face, feeling the bridge of his nose and the soft bow of his lips.  
"They're beautiful," Danae said slowly, feeling the arms and stone armor that they had on. She was in awe of the realism that the statue had _-it even had the different textures in the stone to account for the fabric!_

Théama, however, was not in the same state of awe.   
She watched in morbid curiosity as the girl slid her fingers all over the frozen soldier's body. She snapped out of it however when Danae cried out in amazement, _"They have swords! This is so cool!"_

“Have you no respect for the dead?” Théama hears her own gritty voice asking, and she watches as the girl jerks her out of her stupor as she rips her hands back from the statue.

“What?” she asks stupidly, glancing towards the direction of her voice.

"They're not statues, you stupid girl," Théama says slowly, "Those are dead men."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading!!


	5. I'm sorry, what now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had been a long day for Danae so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hellooo!! Guess whose not dead and is actually able to update today!!!

It had been a long day for Danae so far. Trudging around helplessly, trying to follow a stranger to some sense of safety after a night of almost drowning and being washed up on a beach.

Her arms ached, she had lost a shoe, and she had been in a pretty miserable mood for a while now if she was being honest.

So the statues had been pretty cool, to say the least. 

Until the belated warning from the woman across the room of, "Those are dead men."

And the realization had been embarrassingly slow, to be honest. It started with the confusion-riddled denial, which quickly built to a shriek, shoving the statue dead man away without much thinking.  
But then she could hear the grinding of stone on stone as the statue tipped and shattered into a million small pieces. She let out a yelp as the sound echoed through the temple, her mind ringing with dead men, those are dead men, _what the fuck?_

"What?" Danae mutters distractedly, still shocked by the loud noise and the sound of her heartbeat in her ears.

"They're not statues," Théama repeats slowly.

"What do you mean, they're not statues, _they're stone."_

"It's a curse," Théama says simply, like that's the end of the conversation.

"What curse?" Danae hissed, heart in her throat and the ends of her fingertips going numb. It was near-silent in the temple now, aside from her shuddering breaths and the sound of the statue falling echoing in her mind.

"Have you not heard of the curse of Medusa? This is Sarpedon."

Danae reeled back in shock, because this was _Medusa's Isle?_ _How was she even alive?_ Medusa was _known_ for her bloodthirsty appetite for innocent children, how her mouth was full of knives and she had claws that were the length of a stray cat's tail. Her stories were told all over Greece, and she was told as a tale to misbehaving children.

"Where is she?" Danae questioned, her voice quivering slightly against her resolve. "If this truly is Sarpedon, where is Medusa?"

There was absolute silence a few feet away from her. A moment passed, then two. Danae could barely breathe.

"Not here," Théama said quietly, "Not anymore."

Danae felt as though she could collapse where she stood as the tension dropped from her shoulders. A breath of relief heaved itself through her lungs and she allowed herself a moment of happiness before continuing.

"Where is she then? How are you _alive?_ She killed everyone here, what-" 

"She left."

_"How-?"_

"She managed to escape, I don't know!" Théama's voice echoed off of the walls, reverberating through the air. 

For some reason, Danae thought she could hear a snake.

_Danae, you idiot, what are you doing._

"Sorry, sorry, I-"

"It doesn't matter." There was another tense silence. "I'm going out. Do what you want."

Théama turned near-silently and left the temple, her footsteps echoing behind her, leaving Danae alone with her thoughts.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've made it this far thank you for reading!! very pog
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! :)


End file.
